#59: 8 Critical Steps To Get Your Team To Adopt AI🪜
Hello,
Generative AI is clearly the flavor of the season. Most enterprise leaders I talk to are curious to learn more and understand how their teams can embrace it.
I was invited to give two talks on GAI in the past two weeks - a panel on Data storytelling in the age of GAI and a talk on GAI and Natural Language Processing.
If you’ve followed my work, you’ll know I’ve been trying to address the fear and hype around AI. I’ve highlighted why AI is not for everyone and when you don’t need it.
With GAI, the FOMO and craze have shot through the roof! Clearly, this space needs a lot of caution and education.
This newsletter will take you about 4 minutes to read.
I. Spotlight: 8 Critical Steps To Get Your Team To Adopt AI🪜
A Telecom major was grappling with high customer attrition. The firm was one of the largest Telecom companies in the world and a market leader in Asia.
The marketing team’s heuristics-driven approach to customer retention was dated and ineffective. Reviewing the business performance in a weekly huddle, the CEO knew they had to do something different.
The firm turned to data science to solve this challenge. Machine learning (ML) algorithms were trained to predict customer churn. Simple algorithms such as decision trees used attributes such as “bill amount” and “outgoing call pattern” to improve customer retention by 39%.
While the marketing team was thrilled with these results, the data science team turned to advanced black-box algorithms such as Neural Networks that pushed accuracy even higher. Pilot tests run on high-value customers turned out to be a resounding success – Artificial Intelligence (AI) delivered 66% higher customer retention than the traditional approach.
The solution was ready for rollout, or so it seemed. Then, things turned south.
The marketing product managers flatly refused to use the solution. They found it hard to trust an algorithm that spat out a set of customer names with little explanation. Many of these recommendations were counter-intuitive and the entire process felt wrong.
Despite the data-backed results, they gave the data science solution the cold shoulder. The graveyard of AI projects is filled with such advanced, accurate, and well-meaning yet unused solutions.
What are some simple yet practical approaches you can adopt to turn the tide and make users…
II. Industry Roundup:
1. Article: AI Is Helping Companies Redefine, Not Just Improve, Performance
14 minutes | MIT Sloan Management Review | Michael Schrage, David Kiron, François Candelon, Shervin Khodabandeh, and Michael Chu
AI is a game-changer in performance measurement. It's not just enhancing but redefining performance. By revamping strategic metrics and KPIs, AI enables a shift from observing to influencing success. With AI's unique capacity to identify new performance parameters, the landscape of performance measurement is being transformed.
2. Article: The state of AI in 2022—and a half decade in review
12 minutes | McKinsey | Michael Chui, Bryce Hall, Helen Mayhew, Alex Singla, and Alex Sukharevsky
McKinsey's Global AI Survey reveals a twofold increase in AI adoption since 2017. Top-tier companies are reaping high returns and accelerated development by investing heavily in AI. However, a lack of diversity in AI teams and the widespread tech talent shortage continue to pose a major challenge to this industry-wide transformation. The topmost concern is the disproportionately low interest in mitigating AI-related risks.
III. From my Desk:
1. Article: AI in Pharma Customer Engagement
09 min | Pharmexec.com
What does it take to transform pharma customer engagement? How can AI help? What are the pitfalls you must watch out for? Gregg Fisher and I spoke to industry experts for The Stem article published in PharmaExec magazine. We identified 4 top applications & 4 critical factors for success. If you’re considering advanced analytics for customer engagement, check out this article for actionable tips.
2. Award: Gold Globee Award for Best AI Deployment
1 min | LinkedIn
Flood risks typically cover a large area, are vague, and hence are difficult to action. This often leads to lost lives and damaged properties. Gramener worked with SEEDS to change that in partnership with Microsoft. The AI solution helped pinpoint risk to a house level, making the threat more real… and actionable! We’re glad to be recognized for this solution. Kudos team!
AI enables a partially paralyzed person to walk again… Watch!! 🤯
Thank you for subscribing and reading the newsletter. I appreciate your attention,
Ganes.
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I’m Ganes Kesari. I publish ‘Data-Driven Future’ to help understand how data shapes our world, explore key trends, and explain what they mean for you today. I speak and write to demystify data science for decision-makers and organizations.
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